(In between deadlines. In between flights. In between time and space. In between dreams and nightmares)

Indonesia

BATU, Indonesia. Photo by Jes Aznar

Sunday, December 31, 2006

purging

I spent the last 48 hours cleaning my places as part of my way of ushering 2007. I started with the bookshop and then my place. I have turned almost everything inside out to make sure I get rid of all the trash I have accumulated through the years.

It's fun to clean and let go of things I have kept for sentimental and mundane reasons only to be buried in layers of thick dust. It's always refreshing to let go. And it's fun, too. Looking at old stuff reminded me of past experiences that are all partly the reasons I am my own mold now, of dreams realized and still to be realized and of victories and failures.

There are the old letters, clothes, gifts and many other stuff from people of the past. There are dainty but useless bottles, Babushka dolls, unused post cards and other souvenir items collected from trips abroad. One cabinet is filled with old newspaper articles, photos, unused albums and even unused clothes.

Letting go of stuff I no longer use is one way for me to let go of irrelevant things in my more than 20 years of existence. I am happy to let go of so many things that no longer matter. At the end of the day, after all, it's a big world out there and unnecessary baggage will only make our journeys heavier.

When we are younger, we would hang on to every friend, every new fad or whatever it is that the times would introduce. As we grow older, however, we realize that not everyone can be part of our lives.

There is a need to discard old stuff to make room for new ones, new experiences that can make our lives more enriching than they already are. There is a need to purge those that only make the journey heavier. Traveling light, after all, makes the journey more memorable.

is a Manila-based journalist. She covers the economy for The Philippine Star and blogs about human rights and development issues for the London-based New Internationalist. She is also a coffee and Scotch drinker, a barefoot traveler and a collector of memories.